Harcourt Street railway line.html



The Harcourt Street railway line (Irish: Seanlíne Iarnróid Shráid Fhearchair) ran from Harcourt Street in Dublin through the southern suburbs to Bray.

The line, in red, 1887

Harcourt St. terminus on right, by George Wilkinson, 1858-59.
photo: Peter Gerken

History

Following the success of the Dublin and Kingstown Railway (D&KR), which opened on December 17th 1834, proposals for a second commuter railway were put forward. These plans proposed the building of a 12½-mile (20 km) railway from Bray Daly Station (opened in 1852) to initially terminate at Harcourt Road. (Harcourt Street Station was not built until 1859). The building of the line was done by two railway companies: The Dublin, Wicklow and Wexford Railway (DW&WR), who built the line from Bray to Dundrum and the Dublin, Dundrum and Rathfarnham Railway (DD&RR), who built the line from Dundrum to Harcourt Street.

On 14 February 1900, a train from Enniscorthy failed to stop and went through the buffers and the wall of the station¹, sending debris over Hatch Street. Nobody was killed, though the driver, William Hyland, had to have his right arm amputated at the scene. Another serious accident occurred in 1957 when two trains collided in thick fog just south of Dundrum station. The second train's driving cab was completely destroyed and the guard of the first train, Andy Larkin, was killed instantly.

In the 1950s steam trains were gradually replaced by diesel locomotives on the line in an effort to try and speed up journey times as many patrons of the line had by then forsaken the line due to a rapid and significant increase in the ownership of private cars. CIE were also rapidly expanding their then-new bus services in and around the railway.

Dundrum Station "up platform", old postcard. Note sign for St Columba's College on signal cabin

The Nine Arches, 1909 postcard.

Route

The 12½-mile (20 km) route ran south, initially from a temporary terminus in Harcourt Rd., serving the intermediate stations of Dundrum, Stillorgan, Carrickmines and Shankill. The new Harcourt Street station, still extant, opened in 1859, along with a temporary platform at Foxrock.
Further new stations followed; Milltown (1860), Foxrock (1861), Rathmines & Ranelagh (1896), the Rathmines prefix was dropped in 1921. It joined the Westland Row line at Shanganagh Junction continuing to Woodbrook Halt (1910), which served the cricket ground on Sir Stanley Cochrane's estate. The Woodbrook Golf Club later used this halt between 1920 and 1960.
One of the major engineering feats on the line was the Milltown viaduct, or Nine Arches, which still stands today over the River Dodder.

Decision to close

Following the Beddy Report of 1957, CIE began to realise that in an effort to try and save money, all the non-profitable rural railway branch lines would have to close. The Harcourt Street line was one of these unprofitable railway lines and so the decision to close the line was ultimately reached. In October 1958, CIE gave advance notice of the closure in the local papers. Many objections were raised by local people but to no avail. The last train left Harcourt Street at 4:25pm on December 31st 1958. One interesting event that occurred was that when this train began crossing The Nine Arches Viaduct between Milltown and Dundrum, the staff of the nearby laundry turned out in force and blew sirens as the train crossed the viaduct for the last time. Following the closure, many of the stations were sold by public auction. The tracks were lifted between January 1st 1959 and September 1960.

Legacy

This article or section contains information about a planned or expected public transportation infrastructure. It may contain information of a speculative nature and the content may change dramatically as the construction and/or completion of the infrastructure approaches, and more information becomes available.

The new William Dargan bridge at Dundrum

The route was preserved after closure, allowing for a potential future reopening. The route corridor remained mostly in-situ until the 2000s. The section between the Grand Canal crossing and the old Stillorgan station was chosen for use by the Luas light rail system whose Green Line opened in 2004. The line crosses Dundrum on the new William Dargan cable-stayed bridge.

An extension of the Luas to Cherrywood is planned for completion by 2010, using some of the old railway alignment.²³⁴. The planned route leaves the old alignment after Sandyford Depot to Central Park stop, crosses the M50 and runs down Ballyogan Rd. with stops at Glencairn, The Gallops, Leopardstown Valley and Ballyogan Wood. It then crosses the M50 again, re-joining the original alignment at Racecourse stop, west of Glenamuck Rd. Continuing along the alignment it passes by the original Carrickmines station to Carrickmines stop and Brennanstown stop. The Carrickmines stop will incorporate Park and Ride facilities, both it and Brennanstown will be accessed by new roads from the M50 side. Beyond Brennanstown the route crosses open countryside, diverging slightly from, but paralleling the old alignment to Laughanstown stop, Cherrywood stop and ending at Bride’s Glen stop, adjacent to Dell.

The final extension to Fassaroe⁵⁶ will continue on the old alignment to Loughlinstown, just 1mile (1.5 km) short of the old Shanganagh Junction, before finally leaving the old route by turning south and paralleling the M11.

Visible remains

Several bridges, stations and much of the alignment have survived. These include the Harcourt Street Station, Dundrum, Stillorgan, Carrickmines and Shankill stations, Woodbrook Halt, the Nine Arches and Bride's Glen bridges. No trace of Foxrock station appears to remain, other than the original passenger entrance to Leopardstown Racecourse beside the golf club main gates.

Bride's glen viaduct	Carrickmines station, now a private residence. The passenger access ramp, waiting room & the modern extension to the rear have since been demolished as part of the LUAS works.	Stillorgan station, now a private residence	The Nine Arches viaduct
Dundrum Railway Station, now in ruins	The new Sandyford Luas depot on the left & the old Stillorgan station house, now a private residence, on the right. The line ran through the centre of the picture	Shankill station, to rear of modern office addition

Trivia

• Mile posts on the Dublin - Wexford railway line, south of Shanganagh Junction, are still measured from Harcourt Street.

See also

• History of rail transport in Ireland
• Portobello

References

1. ^ http://www.harcourtstreettraincrash.com/
2. ^ Sandyford to Cherrywood, Line B1 info
3. ^ Line B1 simple maps
4. ^ Line B1 Railway Order, Environmental Impact Statement & detailed maps
5. ^ Line B2 info
6. ^ Line B2 simple map & branch line options

• Johnson, Stephen (1997). Johnson's Atlas and Gazetteer of the Railways of Ireland. Midland Publishing Ltd. ISBN 1-85780-044-3.
• Mac Aongusa, Brian (2003). The Harcourt Street Line - Back on Track. Curragh Press. ISBN 1-85607-907-4.[1]

External links

• Photos of the Luas on the Harcourt Street line
• Extracts from The Harcourt Street Line - Back on Track
• Photo of locomotive crash at Harcourt Street